Social Security History

This is an archival or historical document and may not reflect current policies or procedures.

Arthur J. Altmeyer

A young Arthur J. Altmeyer in the years before he joined Social Security.
SSA History Archives.

Arthur Altmeyer was one of the seminal figures of the Social Security program in America. He was part of the President's Committee on Economic Security that drafted the original legislative proposal in 1934. He was a member of the three-person Social Security Board created to run the new program, and he was either Chairman of the Board or Commissioner for Social Security from 1937-1953. Although he believed that public administration was a vitally important activity, he was also one of the principal conceptual and philosophical spokesmen for social insurance in America, and much of the policymaking during Social Security's founding decades was formulated by Altmeyer. Along with a mere handful of others, Arthur J. Altmeyer is responsible for the Social Security program as it exists in America today.

This collection of material consists of published articles and interviews and the text of speeches that Mr. Altmeyer delivered--primarily during his tenure with the Social Security Administration. Some of the speeches have never been published, and some of the articles have been out of print for 50 years.

These documents represent 30 years of Arthur Altmeyer's work. The are, in a limited sense, his legacy. But his true legacy lies elsewhere. The institution that is the Social Security Administration, and its proud 62-year history of service to generations of Americans, are Arthur Altmeyer's true legacy, for he, more than any other single person, shaped the institution that has administered Social Security over six decades. The character of SSA, its traditions of service and administration, reflect the values and aspirations that Arthur Altmeyer instilled into it from the earliest days of its existence. Although an important policy theorist--as is reflected in these documents--Altmeyer was first and foremost an administrator. He viewed efficient, fair and honest administration as a high calling. And it was to this calling that he gave the labor of his life. This is his true legacy.

Altmeyer's papers and records are in the archives of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin. (Duplicates of many of Altmeyer's most important papers are also available in SSA's History Archives.)

These remarks by Altmeyer on the eve of the 1936 presidential elections were designed to counter some of the arguments against Social Security being advanced by the Republican presidential candidate, Alf Landon.

This speech, delivered the day after the Supreme Court decision regarding constitutionality of the Act, not only provides a report of progress in implementing the Act, but also discusses several key issues facing the program. Of particular note is Altmeyer's discussion of the pay-as-you-go financing issue.

In this article Altmeyer provides a virtual blueprint for how a disability program might work under Social Security. His vision is remarkably prescient of the program that would be adopted more than 15 years later.

In this testimony before Congress Altmeyer gives a detailed report of the status of the programs under the Social Security Act, including many statistics. He also again makes his case for a dramatic expansion of the nation's commitment to social needs.

In this speech Altmeyer argues for the federalization of unemployment insurance and for the expansion of Social Security to small employers through a stamp-book system. He also repeats his oft-stated theme that social insurance and social assistance are both "earned rights."

In this article Altmeyer focuses entirely on his push for federalization of unemployment insurance, citing the work of the Committee on Economic Security and even the Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Act to support his argument. He also emphasizes again his point that the immediate post-War period will be an especially urgent time to implement this new federal system.

In this testimony Altmeyer details the corrosive effects of inflation on fixed Social Security benefits and is implicitly making the case for what will some day become COLAs (cost-of-living-allowances).

In this speech Altmeyer discusses the respective roles of social insurance and "social assistance" and the ways in which they had been converging in modern history. While discussing the problems with both forms of social provision, he also criticizes universal flat rate pension schemes.

Of particular interest in this speech is Altmeyer's announcement that the Board, on its own motion, will start doing benefit recomputations for retirees who have gone back to work in the war effort, in those cases where their additional work may qualify them for a higher benefit.

In this speech Altmeyer restates his standard arguments about the value of the Social Security Act in combating the effects of the post-war surge in unemployment. The argument had a special urgency at this time since in the 10 days following V-J Day 1.8 million workers lost their jobs.

In this speech Altmeyer makes his case for a comprehensive, federal, system of social insurance. In this variation on his familiar theme, he emphasizes both the practical advantages of such a scheme and rebuts the arguments of opponents.

In this article Altmeyer presents to the Advisory Council the Social Security Board's recommendations for improvements in the program. The work of this Advisory Council led to the all-important 1950 Amendments.

In this speech Altmeyer talks about the changes still needed in the OASDI program (and about which he would prove to be remarkably prescient) and his familiar theme of the shortcomings of unemployment compensation and public assistance in America.

In this unusually candid and informal speech Altmeyer discusses some of the politics behind the development of the Social Security Act and tries to explain why the program's designers made the choices they did.

In this extended essay, Altmeyer reviews the development of social insurance programs over the last 30 years. This is one of his more extended analytical pieces tracing the development of social insurance and again reviewing what he considers to be the unfinished business of social insurance.

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